Another Successful Saturday

This weekend we held our mapping event in Sandy, Utah, USA. We spread the word as best we could to the genealogy community, and we were pleasantly surprised by some new faces among the usual suspects. We started out the day by training everyone on how to use the app, paired some people up in teams so one person could clear the headstone and one could snap photos, and quickly netted ourselves 1,163 new images in Larkin Sunset Gardens.

Our efforts were slightly overshadowed by Hokie374, who single-handedly uploaded 1,682 images this Saturday in Benton County Memorial Gardens in Arkansas, USA.

We saw a big turnout from those of you who couldn’t come to Saturday’s event by virtue of living too far away. On Saturday there were 4,810 uploads—the highest since the end of our first monthly contest in August.

1,682 images in Benton County Memorial Gardens (Arkansas, USA)

1,163 images in Larkin Sunset Gardens (Utah, USA)

863 images in National Military Cemetery (Ohio, USA)

493 images in Lehi Cemetery (Utah, USA)

137 images in Woodlawn Cemetery (Indiana, USA)

121 images in Provo City Cemetery (Utah, USA)

119 images in Hurricane City Cemetery (Utah, USA)

93 images in Riverside (Michigan, USA)

60 images in Treynor Zion Congregational Cemetery (Iowa, USA)

40 images in Wentz Cemetery (Indiana, USA)

23 images in Chiefland (Florida, USA)

6 images in Glen Haven Memorial Cemetery (Ohio, USA)

4 images in Mount Hope Cemetery (California, USA)

2 images in Riverton City Cemetery (Utah, USA)

1 image in Coney Hill Cemetery & Crematorium (England, United Kingdom)

1 image in Penrose Cemetery (Colorado, USA)

1 image in Grace Episcopal Cemetery (Maryland, USA)

1 image in Sandy City Cemetery (Utah, USA)

Thanks to everyone who contributed on Saturday (and every other day this weekend, for that matter)!

Event: Cemetery Mapping in Sandy, Utah

It's been a while since the BillionGraves team last organized a cemetery-mapping event, so we're planning one for next Saturday, September 24. You're invited.

• WHO: Anyone near enough to join us (photo collectors and transcribers are all welcome!).
• WHAT: Mapping out the Memorial Gardens of the Valley / Larkin Sunset Gardens area.
• WHEN: September 24, 2011 at 9:00 a.m. 
• WHERE: Memorial Gardens of the Valley / Larkin Sunset Gardens in Sandy, Utah, USA. It's on the corner of 1700 E and Dimple Dell Road (10600 S). If you go east off the 10600 S exit coming off of I-15 you have a straight shot out to the cemetery. Meet in the circular patch of cemetery marked below.

I hope to see lots of you there! We'll plan on staying for an hour at least. Come as you can, leave early if you must. Even if you can only stop in for 15 minutes or so between your kids' soccer games, we'd be happy to have you.

In other news, we've had four people earn their t-shirt this month (there are lots of other people who have crossed the 1,000 mark, but many of them have already earned their shirts).

• Ddwertman (1413 photos)
• lmwillet (1318 photos)
• Sophie (1875 transcriptions)
• mlmckenzie (1046 transcriptions)

Awesome work, you four. Thank you for your contributions!

August’s Winners and September’s Contest

August has been a photo-, map-, and transcription-filled month, and you all have been amazing in the process. Every one of you contributing to BillionGraves has contributed to the awesome growth we’ve seen and to the growing number of complete cemetery records and photos that are now available.

Looking Back at August

There have been thousands of photos uploaded, and there have been many thousands of records transcribed. In fact, there have been so many transcriptions from dedicated individuals that even though we said this month’s promotion would only give t-shirts to those who uploaded photos from the app that we’re sending t-shirts to individuals who transcribed over 1,000 images in August. (If you’re one of these great people, check your email and please get your t-shirt size and shipping information to me as soon as possible.)

Here are this month’s winners and their totals (as of around 10:00 p.m. GMT):

Photo collectors:

• Dswillet (10504)
• Gableboy (2327)
• Mitchowl (8087)
• PapaMoose (1014)
• ValerieC84 (1088)
• GeneologyMaster (1151)
• Hokie374 (9016)
• tjalbrecht (5269)
• ladyr0wan (1210)
• DdraigGoch (1618)
• crex (1159)
• Anne Ryan (1998)
• Bmathis (1452)
• Rbemis01 (4127)
• MichaelMcCormick
• Chynna67 (1433)
• Vickytb (1120)
• TaraDuncan (1078)
• waterfreak2009 (1925)
• Chrisser (2115)
• Joe&Murphy (1572)
• huntingsage (1137)
• grave_hopper (1169)
• shelter (1737)
• masters001 (1047)
• dvdmovieking (1006)
• Catirrel (1089)

Transcribers (if a transcriber already earned a t-shirt from uploading photos, he or she doesn’t get another one):

• trishkovach (11536)
• DdraigGoch (10961)
• RWhisnant (10197)
• EAC61 (6577)
• Rbemis01 (5181)
• SouthPawPhilly (5080)
• Anne Ryan (3222)
• Finnsh (3140)
• Chynna67 (3115)
• juicyjaffa (2429)
• dvdmovieking (2141)
• MollyM (2042)
• Russell808 (1834)
• tjalbrecht (1729)
• grave_hopper (1425)
• cemeteryschlep (1365)
• foxhunt (1298)
• sls1966 (1268)
• deacent (1151)
• Bmathis (1059)
• delmonic1970 (1019)

To everyone, even those who didn’t make it into the over-1,000 club, thank you so much for your contributions to the BillionGraves project!

Looking Forward to September

Now that August is over, what are we going to do for September? For starters, we’re going to duplicate last month’s t-shirt contest: If you upload 1,000 GPS-verified* photos OR transcribe 1,000 photos, you will earn a BillionGraves t-shirt. For those of you who have already won your t-shirt, you won’t get another one if you cross the 1,000-photo threshold, but I hope you won’t let your cemetery-mapping habits falter.

Also, even if you’ve already won your t-shirt, don’t stop there! Let your spouses, friends, children, grandchildren, cousins, neighbors—even complete strangers—know about BillionGraves. The more people we have working on the project, the more cemeteries we can get mapped out, and the more ancestors we can help each other find.

_________________________

*GPS-verified photos are headstone photos that come through the free BillionGraves app for iPhone and Android.

The T-shirt Deadline Approaches

August is nearly over, so if you’re anywhere near collecting 1,000 GPS-tagged photos, hurry and collect the last few you need to earn your BillionGraves t-shirt. We’ve had a few new winners since the last time I announced the list, so I’ll post it again here with the added names. (If you think you’ve uploaded 1,000 photos from the app, but you haven’t received an email from me asking for your shipping address and shirt size, email me at kristy.stewart @ billiongraves.com and let me know.)

• dswillet
• Gableboy
• Mitchowl
• PapaMoose
• ValerieC84
• GeneologyMaster
• Hokie374
• tjalbrecht
• lady0rowan
• DdraigGoch
• crex
• Anne Ryan
• Bmathis
• Rbemis01
• MichaelMcCormick
• Chynna67
• Vickytb
• TaraDuncan
• Chrisser
• Joe&Murphy
• waterfreak2009
• huntingsage
• grave_hopper
• shetler

If you have a smartphone with true GPS, you still have time to collect 1,000 headstone photos. Upload your photos by 11:59 p.m. UTC and you’ll have won yourself a BillionGraves t-shirt.

More Graves, More Winners

The number of graves you have all mapped out and transcribed is climbing faster than ever—even slow upload days are higher than the average we had before August. You have all really stepped up to the plate on this, and the number of individuals who have earned their t-shirt is growing apace. We have 19 t-shirt winners, and there’s still more than a week left! Here’s a list of our current winners:

• dswillet
• Gableboy
• Mitchowl
• PapaMoose
• ValerieC84
• GeneologyMaster
• Hokie374
• tjalbrecht
• lady0rowan
• DdraigGoch
• crex
• Anne Ryan
• Bmathis
• Rbemis01
• MichaelMcCormick
• Chynna67
• Vickytb
• TaraDuncan

The Leaderboard gives us a glimpse of all the transcribers who are taking the uploaded photos and making them searchable. Right now the lowest number of transcriptions on the Leaderboard (which now extends to 25 instead of 10) is 325; the highest is a whopping 10,170 transcriptions from RWhisnant! And even with RWhisnant’s astounding numbers, we’ve had so many uploads that there are still over 5800 images available to transcribe. This is an amazing month for cemetery record collection.

Free App & First Winners

Yesterday version 1.2 of the iPhone app was released, so the app is now free. I’ll talk more about the new features in the app in a bit; first I want to talk about some amazing people.

First, a big thank you to everyone who uploaded photos over the weekend. We’ve had our strongest four days ever, with thousands of photos uploaded every day.

Second, an equally big thank you to our expertly efficient transcribers, who seem to keep up just fine with the increase in uploads.

Third, a thank you and congratulations to our first t-shirt winners, DSWillett, Gableboy, and Mitchowl. All three of them have crossed the 1,000-photo threshold and have earned their BillionGraves t-shirt for the August promotion. (They’re also sitting quite comfortably at the top of the Leaderboard.) Awesome job, you three. I’m amazed at what you were able to do in only eight days.

Now that we’ve taken a moment to acknowledge everyone who keeps new information pouring in to BillionGraves, we have a chance to talk about the update for the iPhone app.

Version 1.2 has several enhancements, but there are a few you’ll notice more than the others:

• Faster photo taking
• Ability to add a cemetery using an address (in case you can’t get to the cemetery and add it using your current location)
• The dashboard displays your transcription count along with your other counts
• A link to the User Guide from the Settings view (in case you have any questions while you’re using the app)

The last, most drastic improvement to the app is the optional feature expansion available for a $2.99 in-app purchase (if you’re updating to version 1.2 from an earlier version you get the expansion automatically). This expansion bundle is called Records View. I’ve mentioned it before, but in case you missed the explanation, Records View unlocks three main options:

• Search records that have already been transcribed from within the app (searching on the website is still, of course, free).
• View a list of transcribed records whose GPS tags are near your current location.
• View an already transcribed photo on the map along with your current location (this makes it easy to navigate to a headstone in an unfamiliar cemetery).

Records View allows you to access and utilize the information, photos, and records on the BillionGraves database in new and useful ways. I hope all of you who unlocked it automatically by updating enjoy the new feature bundle, and that those of you who are new to BillionGraves will consider adding this tool to your research toolbox.

Top the Leaderboard: Track Your Stats

The Android app isn’t the only thing we’ve been building over the past few weeks: we’re also improving the way we track photos, records, and cemeteries. A lot of what we’ve done keeps the database running smoother and you’ll never have to see it. But one fun part about our tracking everything is we can now acknowledge those of you who have participated above and beyond expectations. Yesterday we launched the BillionGraves Leaderboard (you’ll need to be logged in to see it; there’s also a link to it from your dashboard).

Click on the photo to enlarge the board for June’s leading transcribers and photo collectors (as of 10:10 AM MDT). A special congratulations to Catirrel and trishkovach, who each are currently topping either the photo or the transcription list. And an extra thank you to crex and Hokie374, who both are into the Top 10 for both categories.

The Leaderboard results can be viewed according to the current month or all time, and they update constantly. It’s not much, but it’s our small way of recognizing everyone who is working so hard to contribute to the BillionGraves project.

In addition to the Leaderboard, we’ve made several subtler improvements to existing aspects of the site. 

Report Images

For transcribers, there’s now a much improved Report Image function. If you click the red button beneath a problem photo, you’re given several options as to the reason why you’re reporting the photo (this helps us know what to do with it):

• This photo is blurry or unreadable: For poorly taken photos that need to be redone.
• The headstone is unreadable: For headstones that are too hard to decipher.
• This isn’t a headstone!: Just in case something that isn’t a grave monument gets past our image checker.
• There’s no information to transcribe: For monuments or photos that don’t contain anything you can transcribe.
• Non-Latin characters (Arabic, Chinese, etc.): For monuments with non-Latin letters. In the future these will be supported, so we want to keep these stones separate for future transcribing.
• Other: Because we can’t think of everything.

Before you mark a photo or stone as unreadable, please make sure it actually is. There are many photos and stones that may be less than ideal, but are still legible with a bit of zooming, squinting, and informed thinking.

Shortcut Keys

In case you aren’t already aware, I want to let you know about our shortcut keys for transcriptions. CTRL+S will save your transcription and CTRL+I will add an individual. We plan to add even more of these so transcriptions can be as quick and easy as possible.

Add an Individual to a Saved Transcription

There have been a few instances in which a transcription was saved before all the individuals in the photo were recorded. Unfortunately there was no way to add an individual after saving. That has been remedied, so you can now add individuals regardless of where you are in the transcription process.

Basic Error Checking

We’ve introduced some basic error checking (someone’s birth or death date cannot be recorded as tomorrow, for example). We intend to make these more sophisticated as we go along so we can improve the quality and accuracy of BillionGraves transcriptions.

Thank you to everyone who has already downloaded the Android app this weekend and started using it. You’ve given the swift-fingered transcribers a lot more to do.